Suppression of diffraction in DIS on nuclei and dynamical mechanism of leading twist nuclear shadowing

Abstract

Using the leading twist approach (LTA) to nuclear shadowing (NS), we calculate the ratio of the diffractive-to-total DIS cross sections $R_{diff/tot}$ for a heavy nucleus and proton and confirm that $R_{diff/tot}\approx 0.5-1$ in contrast with $R_{diff/tot}\approx 1.5-2$ in the dipole model. We show that the magnitude of $R_{diff/tot}$ is controlled by an effective dipole cross section so that $R_{diff/tot}\to 1$ in the black disk limit. We also argue that strong leading twist NS as well as the dilute nuclear density deplete nuclear enhancement of the saturation scale leading to $Q_{sA}^2(b=0)/Q_{sp}^2(b=0)\sim 1$.

Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the Proceedings of Diffraction and Low-$x$ 2024, Palermo, Italy, September 8-14, 2024